House Democrats are upset with leadership after a lackluster election performance. Given the way the last two years have gone, what exactly did they expect?
Republicans have already taken back six seats they lost in 2018, knocking off Democrat incumbents in Florida, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Iowa. Other centrist Democrats, such as New York’s Max Rose, are still in danger of defeat. And in Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District, Republicans finally managed to defeat 15-term incumbent Collin Peterson, a centrist defending a district that Donald Trump won by 30 points in 2016. Democrats’ gains were all due to court-ordered redistricting.
Democrats had thought they could expand their House majority. Now, there are rumbles of overhauling the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, including its chairwoman Rep. Cheri Bustos. Voters may even help with that process: Bustos is currently trailing in her own Illinois House race.
Democrats brought this on themselves over the last two years. Their biggest accomplishment in the House majority was a failed impeachment that made a mockery of the process. It’s no surprise that Democrats decided to ignore and downplay that in their 2020 campaign pitch. The party’s constant flirtation with socialism certainly cost them two seats in Florida. And after a lot of the usual hype in Texas, it appears that they will be unable to flip a single seat in the Lone Star State.
Nancy Pelosi’s second stint as Speaker of the House has been a trainwreck. She repeatedly failed to corral the more progressive members of her caucus, and she allowed her centrist “majority makers” to be dragged into a doomed-to-fail impeachment fight. Centrist Democrats knew that Pelosi’s failed negotiations over coronavirus relief were going to be a problem, and now they are paying for it at the ballot box.
Democrats relied on Trump’s personal unpopularity to vault them back into the majority in 2018. They have offered voters nothing since then but a laundry list of far-left ideas that will be useless if Republicans hold on to the Senate, which appears likely. Now, Pelosi will be stuck with a slimmer majority and no hope of sending grand progressive bills to the White House. If Joe Biden does clinch the presidency, the GOP will be licking its chops for the 2022 midterm elections as Pelosi tries to guide a wounded majority.
